Building a better business starts with understanding strategy ...

Two best-selling authors and consultants told Charlotte-area business owners and executives their game plan for entrepreneurial success at a day-long event Thursday.

The event was hosted by Vistage, a company specializing in peer advisory groups with about 16,000 members worldwide. About 120 local business leaders attended.

Speakers Keith McFarland and Jaynie Smith decried conventional business strategies for growth and marketing.

McFarland, author of ?The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results,? encouraged business leaders to include even entry-level workers in decision-making and reevaluate company strategy every 90 days.

He also criticized ?kumbaya? team-building exercises, such as ropes courses, as a waste of time.

The best way to build a team, McFarland said, is to develop a ?strategy everybody understands, believes in and feels a part of.?

McFarland?s book ? the culmination of a five-year study of more than 7,000 companies ? profiled nine ?breakthrough? companies, including SAS Institute of Research Triangle Park.

Smith is author of ?Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors.? She has consulted for mid-sized businesses and Fortune 500 executives and says 95 percent of businesses don?t maximize their ?competitive advantage.?

She said nearly all companies laud their good customer service, reputation and expertise, without giving the specifics that set them apart. Few companies dig deeper and offer concrete examples of why they?re different or better than the competition.

For example, many lenders tout their communication. But a lender optimizing its competitive advantage would use statistics ? such as ?95.8 percent of 504 calls last year were responded in 24 hours.? She also encouraged business leaders to spend the money to hire outside groups for research, rather than relying on customer surveys. Double-blind studies offer feedback that?s more objective and useful, she said.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/19/3608342/building-a-better-business-starts.html

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